Absorbent burner for liquid fuel



Patented Nov. 26, 1889..

N. PETERS. PIlnXo-Lilhugmphn Wnhlnglon. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FELTON M. LYTLE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE POROUS CARBON \VICK COMPANY, OF MAINE.

ABSORBENT BURNER FOR- LIQUID FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,114, dated November 26, 1889.

Application filed November 14, 1887. Serial No. 255,109. (Specimens) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FELTON M. LYTLE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AbsorbentBurners for Liquid Fuel, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to burners of absorbent and refractory material, such as are refractory material, a mass of asbestus being placed in a holder of wire-netting. Heretofore burners of this class, when in the form of bricks or solid masses, have been made of infusorial earth or like material, and in all cases the combustion of oil on burners of this class, whether made in the form of bricks or of incased asbestus, orof any other material that has been employed, has been imperfect, and has been attended with smoke and a deposit of soot on the surface of the burner.

My invention has for its object to provide a burner of the class referred to which shall be free from the above-recited objections; and it consists in a burner composed of a mass of porous substance, preferably carbon, having a refractory exterior and a highly porous and absorbent interior; and it further consists in certain minor features of construction, as will appear from the following description and claims.

Of the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a side view of a rectangular block of porous carbon constituting a burner. Fig. 2 repre sents a sectional view of a burner. of cylin-.

drical form. Fig. 3 represents a top view of a burner partly incased with metal. Fig. at represents a section 011 line 0: 00, Fig. 3.

The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in all of the figures.

In carrying out my invention in the preferred manner I make as a burner a piece of porous carbon of rectangular, cylindrical, or other form, using any suitable process or method of making the carbon porous and of giving it the desired shape.

I prefer to make the burner by the following process, viz: I take powdered or granulated carbon and miX therewith a quantity of gum-arabic, pitch, mucilage, or other similar substance capable of agglomerating the carbon into a thick plastic paste and of being dissipated or evaporated by heat. This paste I mold in proper form under pressure, and then subject it to heat, preferably gentle "and long-continued, for the purpose of evap The burner is used by saturating it with oil or other liquid fuel and igniting the same on the surface of the burner.

I have found by practical tests that the oil in a refractory porous carbon block burns on the surface thereof without leaving soot, lampblack, or other products of combustion upon said surface. The reason of this perfect combustion I am not able at the present time to state; but I believe it to be due to the fact that more air is admitted to all parts of the surface on which the combustion takes place than in any other porous burner heretofore made. n

In Fig. 2 I have shown a burner made by entirely inclosing a core Z) of combustible material-such as hay, straw, wood shavings or strips, &c.in an envelope of carbon paste, made as above described; then making the carbon porous, and subjecting the whole to heat sufficient to carbonize the core, which is thus converted into a filling of loose carbon fragments or particles capable of absorbing more oil than a quantity of the rigid porous carbon occupying the same space, thus forming a reservoir within the carbon block,

so that a charge of oil in a burner thus made will last longer than in a homogeneous mass of porous carbon. If preferred, the core I) may be made by inclosing powdered carbon in an envelope or holder of wire-gauze or perforated metal or other suitable material, and then covering it wit-h the carbon paste, the latter being after rendered porous, as described.

In Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown the porous carbon contained in a sheet-metal pan 0, covering all but the upper surface of the carbon. Said pan has one or more flues (1, extending from its bottom through the carbon-burner to supply air to the central portion or portions of the surface on which the combustion takes place. Slides or dampers e e, sliding in guides on the bottom of the pan, may be adjusted to shut off the flues d wholly or partially, and thus to a certain extent regulate the activity of the combustion on the surface of the carbon.

The advantages of the latter construction will be at once apparent. The oil only burning from the surface of the block will last longer, the pan preventing the waste of oil at the bottom and causing the whole to be carried up to the surface.

The pan, of course, may be of glazed pottery or other nonporous refractory substance Without departing from the spirit of my invention.

It is obvious that other materials than carbon may be employed to advantage in making burners with the refractory porous shell and the highly-porous material-such as firebrick, &c.as will be readily understood by those skilled in the Workin g of such materials.

I claim-- 1. An absorbent burner forliquid fuel having a rigid refractory porous shell and a core or central part of greater porosity or absorb ent capacity than such shell entirely inclosed within the shell and forming a reservoir for the fuel, substantially as described.

2. A11 absorbent burner for liquid fuel formed of the rigid refractory porous carbon shell and a core or central part of carbon of greater porosity or absorbent capacity than such shell entirely inclosed within the shell and forming a reservoir for the fuel, substan tially as described.

3. An absorbent burner composed of the rigid shell of refractory porous carbon and a filling of loose carbon particles or fragments entirely surrounded by said refractory carbon and forming a reservoir for the liquid fuel, as set forth.

4. The combination, with an absorbent burnerof refractory porous substance having apertures through the same for the passage of air, of dampers located in such apertures for regulating the amount of air supplied to the surface of the burner,'as set forth.

5. The combination, with an absorbent burner composed of refractory porous substance held within a non-absorbent casing having the apertures through the same, of dampers located in such apertures for regulating the amount of air supplied to the face of the block, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 9th day of November, A. D. 1887.

FELTON M. LYTLE.

WVitnesses:

O. F. BROWN, ARTHUR W. ORossLEY. 

